The NLL announced their 2025 NLL awards nominees in a press release on Wednesday, while the actual winners will be announced next week before the beginning of the NLL finals.
The NLL awards were reportedly voted on by media members, coaches, and team personnel, with three nominees for each award. Voting took place prior to the beginning of the 2025 playoffs.
The 11 NLL awards and their nominees are outlined below.
MVP
Nominees: Wes Berg, Dhane Smith, Connor Fields
The NLL will have a new MVP in 2025, as 2024 winner Josh Byrne was not one of the nominees. Smith is the only nominee who has won the award before, taking it home in both 2016 and 2022.
Berg finished with 49 goals and 39 assists for 88 points on the year. But it was his clutch play that earned him the nomination, scoring 5 game winning goals on the season. He scored 19 goals in the last four wins for the Seals, helping them make their way into the playoffs. He finished second in the league in goals.
No Sunday Scaries here 🎬 @wes_berg pic.twitter.com/FA6HAHsgJK
— San Diego Seals (@SealsLax) February 17, 2025
Smith broke his own assist record for the fourth straight season, finishing with 32 goals and 102 assists to lead the league in scoring. He finished with double-digit points in a game five separate times, and finished tied with Josh Byrne for the league lead with 134 points.
Fields was the next highest scoring player at 123 points on 46 goals and 77 assists. He led the Knighthawks back to the playoffs as part of one of the league’s best offences. The MVP nomination is his first of his career.
Offensive Player of the Year
Nominees: Jeff Teat, Dhane Smith, Connor Fields
Teat lead the league in goals with 56, his third straight year with 56 or more goals. He is already in the top 80 of all time goal scorers in league history despite having played just 70 career games.
EIGHT GOALS FOR JEFF TEAT 😱🎱 pic.twitter.com/NpNb65aICr
— NLL (@NLL) April 13, 2025
Defensive Player of the Year
Nominees: Ryan Dilks, Matt Hossack, Graeme Hossack
Dilks and Hossack have won five DPOY awards between the two, with Dilks winning last year and in 2016. Graeme won three straight from 2018-2020.
Dilks led the Warriors back to the playoffs this year, finishing with 104 loose balls and 31 CTOs. Vancouver had the NLL’s best defences this year and were one of only two to average fewer than 10 goals against per game.
Matt Hossack was a dispersal pickup by the Rush and had an outstanding year for Saskatchewan. He finished with 4 goals and 21 points, to go along with 129 loose balls, 32 CTOs and a team-high 26 blocked shots.
His brother Graeme also had 21 points on 5 goals and 16 assists. He finished with 151 loose balls, 20 CTOs and 15 blocked shots. He had one of the best statistical games in league history on February 8th, when he scored a goal, had 2 assists, picked up 18 loose balls, had 6 CTOs and blocked two shots.
3️⃣ Goals
— Halifax Thunderbirds (@HFXThunderbirds) March 22, 2025
5⃣ Points
1⃣3⃣ Loose Balls
A career night for @4Hoss18 who scored his first career hat trick to help us to a massive victory in The Nest ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/TfGUju83JP
Transition Player of the Year
Nominees: Ryan Terefenko, Owen Grant, Zach Currier
Terefenko had a mammoth season, finishing with 38 points on 17 goals and 21 assists. He had at least a point in 16 of the 18 games, and had back to back hat-tricks against Vancouver and Philadelphia. He also added 142 loose balls, 12 CTOs and 9 blocked shots.
Grant was a monster in Vancouver as well. He finished with 15 goals, 9 assists, 103 loose balls, 28 CTOs and 27 blocked shots.
Currier played much of the season out the offensive door so his numbers are higher, finishing with 18 goals and 29 assists for 47 points. He also added an incredible 193 loose balls, 32 CTOs and 11 blocked shots.
Goaltender of the Year
Nominees: Nick Rose, Frank Scigliano, Matt Vinc
Last year’s winner Rose was the only starter to finish above 80% SV% on the season, and had the third best GAA of any starter.
NICK ROSE!! 🌹🌹
— Calgary Roughnecks (@NLLRoughnecks) April 19, 2025
With 22 saves tonight Rosey moves into second all time in NLL saves! pic.twitter.com/IayXZjAG5V
Scigliano had the best year of his career with a league best 9.40 GAA and third-best 79.5% SV%.
Vinc has won the award already eight times, but finished with the fifth best SV% and fourth best GAA in the league.
Rookie of the Year
Nominees: Brennan O’Neill, Adam Poitras, Dyson Williams
We wrote about the rookie class extensively this year, so check that out for the whole list of rookie candidates.
Williams led all frosh with 64 points on 26 goals and 38 assists, narrowly beating O’Neill who had 25 goals and 32 assists.
Poitras had a unicorn season with 23 goals, 24 assists, 89 loose balls, 17 CTOs and 4 blocks.
Sportsmanship Award
Nominees: Lyle Thompson, Kyle Buchanan, Keegan Bal
Thompson has won this award for six straight seasons, so he figures to be the heavy favourite. He finished the year with 93 points and just 2 PIMs.
Bal had 4 PIMs to go along with his 112 point season, while leading Vancouver back to the playoffs.
Buchanan had a career year in his 12th season, scoring 34 goals and having 4 PIMs. In 198 games he has just 41 PIMs.
Les Bartley Award (Head Coach of the Year)
Nominees: Mike Hasen, Jimmy Quinlan, Curt Malawsky
Hasen took the Knighthawks back to the playoffs for the second straight year, with their best league finish since being re-introduced to the league in 2020.
Quinlan led a monster bounce back year for the Rush, who went from 8-10 last year to 13-5 this year and a tie for first place. He has the Rush one game away from the NLL finals.
Malawsky revitalized the Vancouver organization and pulled off one of the great trades in league history, acquiring Christian Del Bianco at the deadline.
General Manager of the Year
Nominees: Mike Board, Derek Keenan, Curt Malawsky
Board and Keenan both reinvented their teams, bringing both back into the playoff picture after difficult seasons the year before.
Tom Borelli Award (Media Person of the Year)
Nominees: Maki Jenner, Teddy Jenner, John Gurtler
Maki Jenner became the first female to do colour commentary for an NLL game earlier this year, and also launched the league’s new podcast.
Her uncle Teddy is an LCD contributor! He remains one of the best voices of the NLL.
Gurtler is a Bandits legend who has been a major liaison between the sport and its fanbase throughout his career with Buffalo.
The Borelli Award is one of the most competitive NLL awards every year.
Executive of the Year
Nominees: John Catalano (Halifax), Scott Loffler (Buffalo) and Jason Thorne
These three men presided over the three of the five highest average attendance rates in the league this year, thanks in large part to their work off the floor!
Who do you think deserves the NLL awards? Let us know in the comments below!